Food help and community service go hand in hand

Food and Nutrition, Sept, 1991 by Joanne Widner

Look closely at any successful operation, and you're likely to find people who are energetic, creative, and enthusiastic about what they do. That's certainly true of the people who run two successful Commodity Supplemental Food Program (CSFP) sites in Des Moines, Iowa, and Denver, Colorado.

The two operations have much in common. Both use a supermarket set-up to provide efficient, streamlined service to CSFP participants. Both give participants nutrition information and recipes along with supplemental foods. And both make special efforts to coordinate with volunteers, community organizations, and other social service agencies.

The Commodity Supplemental Food Program is one of several food assistance programs USDA administers in cooperation with state and local agencies. CSFP provides USDA commodities to low-income mothers, infants, and young children (age 6 and younger), and to low-income elderly people (age 60 and older). CSFP participants receive a variety of USDA foods, depending on their age and nutritional needs.

The Des Moines and Denver programs are two of 47 local CSFP sites currently operating around the country.

Supermarket set-up

is fast and convenient

The Des Moines CSFP facility opened in October 1989 in a former supermarket. It's across the street from a food stamp office and senior center that also houses a "well-elderly" clinic. According to Virginia Petersen of the Polk County (Iowa) Department of Human Services, "It's a great location."

When clients enter the store, a computer terminal speeds certification, cross-checks for dual participation with WIC (another and much larger USDA program serving mothers, infants, and children), and then creates a shopping list.

Armed with that list, clients wheel shopping carts past bins of commodity foods, making selections from various food groups in quantities computer-matched to family ages and numbers. They don't have to accept anything they can't use without waste.

Check-out is also computerized, thanks to the use of electronic scanning equipment in check-out lanes. The scanners, which the Denver facility also hopes to add eventually, "read" the bar codes on packages and cans of USDA commodity foods. In addition to making check-out faster and easier for participants, the electronic scanning equipment helps CSFP managers keep better track of inventory and distribution.

These are other

special features

Des Moines' CSFP supermarket is also equipped to make it easier for participants to get their packages home. A conveyor belt transfers participants' packages from the check-out counter to a pick-up point where they can easily be loaded into cars. For elderly people who cannot come to the distribution center, there is home delivery.

In addition to this streamlined delivery system, Des Moines' CSFP facility has several other special features. For example, there are television monitors that play educational tapes, and a playroom so mothers can shop in peace while their children are happily occupied.

There's also a well-baby clinic on the premises that offers immunizations, lead-poisoning screening, and iron-level blood tests to CSFP mothers and children.

Of interest to both mothers and elderly participants is the demonstration kitchen operated by home economists from USDA's Extension Service. The home economists show participants how to prepare tasty dishes, using commodity foods that are sometimes unfamiliar to them.

During a recent demonstration, Extension staffers made dollar-size pancakes from commodity egg mix and evaporated milk; they also mixed batter for carrot muffins using commodity nonfat dry milk, egg mix, honey, and canned carrots.

Food and education

go hand in hand

Food and education also go hand in hand at Denver's CSFP facility. As in Des Moines, the program uses a supermarket set-up that makes it simple for participating mothers and elderly people to select supplemental foods. There are also many special features, such as home delivery for the elderly and babysitting for children whose mothers are shopping for CSFP foods.

Food preparation and demonstration classes are offered 3 days a week by teachers from the Emily Griffith Opportunity School--a vocational school that's part of the Denver public school system--and recipes are always available.

Making sure participants get and know how to use their CSFP foods is the greatest concern of Denver CSFP administrator Tony Quintana and his staff. However, they don't stop there. Working closely with other groups, they've made the CSFP facility a center for a variety of community-supported activities. For example, on a monthly basis, the facility becomes a distribution site for Colorado SHARE, a local affiliate of an innovative private nonprofit program currently operating in 18 locations around the country.

SHARE gives interested families and individuals opportunities to save on food costs by contributing time to volunteer efforts in their communities. In exchange for 2 hours' community service and #13 in cash or food stamps, participants earn one "share" which is equivalent to one food package. (SHARE has received authorization from USDA's Food and Nutrition Service to accept food stamps.)